Rookie Mike Trout and slugger Mark Trumbo have been driving forces for the Angels -- and should be headed to Kansas City for the 2012 All-Star Game.PHOTO BY MICHAEL GOULDING/THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

They're going to Kansas City. Kansas City, here they come.

Considering the impact they have had in the first half of the 2012 season, it seems unthinkable that either Mike Trout (one of the most dynamic rookie talents the American League has seen in years) or Mark Trumbo (one of the most productive young sluggers in the American League) could be left off the AL roster for the annual All-Star Game to be played at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on July 10.

"If I get picked, it'd be a great honor. But if I don't get picked, there's always next year," Trout said with the unassuming stance – masking a deep reserve of confidence – that has been his adopted posture while taking the AL by storm over the past two months.

"It's a good personal goal. But I'm here to win. All the individual honors are nice, but that's not as important as helping the team win."

That is just another point in Trout's favor for an All-Star selection – the Angels were just 6-14 before his promotion on April 27 but have been the winningest team in the majors since his arrival (34-19).

But there are plenty of numbers to make Trout's case. He is second in the American League in batting (.338), third in on-base percentage (.399) and first in stolen bases (21). Since May 1, no one in the majors has scored more runs (43) than Trout or been on base more times (92).

"Everything happens in its own time," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, downplaying the significance of Trout making the All-Star team before his 21st birthday – something our best research could find has been done by only 17 players in baseball history.

"If the time's right and Mike continues to play well and he gets that honor, great. But I don't think it's anything that's consuming his time right now."

It's certainly eating up a lot of his interview time. The question has been thrown at Trout so often that his response has become steadily downsized from "a huge thrill" to "awesome" to "a good personal goal."

NO EXPECTATIONS

Six years older and one year farther down the road on his big-league career, Trumbo is similarly dismissive of the All-Star talk.

"I treat it the same way I treated all the Rookie of the Year talk last year -- I don't expect anything," said Trumbo who finished second to Rays right-hander Jeremy Hellickson in the AL Rookie of the Year voting after leading the Angels in home runs (29) and RBI (87) in 2011.

"If something were to happen, it would be awesome, a tremendous honor. But I'm not spending any time thinking about it."

It shouldn't take any time to arrive at a conclusion regarding his All-Star worthiness. Trumbo has been the most consistently productive hitter in the Angels' lineup, outshining nine-time National League All-Star Albert Pujols among others.

Through Sunday's games, Trumbo is one of only two players in the American League to rank in the Top 10 in each of the three Triple Crown categories – he ranks fifth in batting average (.316), tied for eighth in home runs (17) and tied for sixth in RBI (49).

The other player, Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton, leads all players in the online All-Star voting. Click here to see the latest vote totals; balloting ends at 8:59 PDT Thursday.

If Trout and Trumbo are going to get to Kansas City, it won't be through the current fan voting. Trout started the season in Triple-A and the Angels did not even nominate him for inclusion on the All-Star ballot. Trumbo, meanwhile, appears on the ballot as a third baseman – a position he has played just eight times this season, none since May 3.

And don't get any big ideas about a write-in selection. That option is available on the online ballot but no player has been voted to the All-Star Game as a write-in since the punch-ballot days of 1974 when Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey was voted in.

COMPLICATED PROCESS

But the All-Star selection process has gotten much more complicated since 1974 and there are other ways for Trout and Trumbo to get to Kansas City.

"It's a tricky thing," said Scioscia who managed the AL team in 2003 after the Angels' lone World Series appearance in 2002. "Having gone through the process, most of your team is already selected before you sit down and 'quote-unquote' and make manager's selections."

By the time it gets into AL manager Ron Washington's hands, a Rubik's Cube of requirements will be restricting his options.

After online voting determines the starting lineups in both leagues, a poll of players will determine the backup at every position plus five starting pitchers and three relievers. Those ballots are currently in players' hands and should feature strong support for Trout and Trumbo – but players have only voted in one rookie (Dan Uggla in 2006) since the player balloting was added to the process in 2003.

"If he's one of the best players, he's one of the best players," Washington said recently about choosing a young player like Trout who didn't even open the season in the majors. "It's an All-Star Game. It's not politics. I'm just checking to see who are the best players. That's what it's supposed to be."

But Washington knows it's not that simple. He will have only seven selections to fill out the 34-man roster – but he has to make sure there are 13 pitchers, leaving just two position player spots for him to fill. And he has to make sure each one of the AL's 14 teams are represented by at least one player.

And that's not it either.

"You know more about it than I do," Trumbo said when asked if he was aware of the convoluted process that could make him an All-Star.

MORE CHANCES

MLB has added a "Final Vote" competition for the last spot on each roster. Five players in each league are nominated and fans can vote one more player onto each league's All-Star rosters – in theory, a way to correct any snubs the process has created.

Then there are the inevitable injury replacements. A year ago, 84 players could boast of being All-Star selections by the time a large number of stars had begged out of the game and been replaced. Those replacements are chosen based on how the unavailable player was originally selected – for example, if a player's choice backs out, he will be replaced by the next highest vote-getter at that position.

That is how Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick and reliever Jordan Walden became first-time All-Stars in 2011 (along with Jered Weaver). But MLB commissioner Bud Selig has vowed to crack down this year after being embarrassed by last year's large number of absentees.

And if Trout and Trumbo do emerge from a process more complicated than the Electoral College, they might have company in KC – Weaver, C.J. Wilson, Ernesto Frieri and Scott Downs are all deserving of All-Star consideration as well.

"Hopefully we're going to be seeing this for another 20 years. He's a special player with special tools," Scioscia said of Trout's candidacy. "We have a number of guys on our club that are having that type of season, that deserve All-Star recognition. We should be well-represented."

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